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The union representing Ontario firefighters has issued a letter to all members that goes out of its way to fan the flames of fear about a province run by PC Leader Tim Hudak.

The hysterical May 27 letter — obtained by the Toronto Sun — was actually written by Harold Schaitberger, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), based in Washington, D.C. following a request from the brass at the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association (OPFFA).

The letter suggests that if Hudak wins on June 12, the results will be “disastrous” because the PC leader has promised to “fire” 100,000 public servants and that could mean “hundreds of firefighters” will lose their jobs. The letter contends that even if firefighters do get to keep their jobs, they will be handed a two-year wage freeze (perish the thought) and will face an arbitration that will be tilted in the “employer’s favour” making it “impossible” to ever get a “fair deal” again.

Schaitberger’s letter claims that after Hudak’s massive cuts, “public and firefighter safety will be put at risk.

“I’ve seen this kind of destruction before — in the United States,” Schaitberger writes. “I have witnessed the heartache of firefighters losing their jobs, their pensions and their rights at the hands of malicious Tea Party governments that scared people into voting for them and then imposed the same destructive plan Hudak has promised for Ontario.”

Schaitberger could not be reached for comment. But outgoing OPFFA president Mark McKinnon — whose union is a proud member of the Working Families Coalition (of equally entitled union groups) — said the letter was crafted to send a broader message that firefighters should be actively participating in this election.

The image of the Tea Party was invoked, he said, because it is their belief that some of the PC party’s policies are “similar” to the Tea Party in the U.S. — particularly the 100,000 union job cuts and proposed changes to the interest arbitration process where their contracts are sent if not negotiated at the bargaining table.

McKinnon admitted, when asked, that Hudak has not actually said he’ll cut firefighter jobs but insisted he has not excluded firefighters, either, from the jobs he lists when he asked who would be exempted. “If firefighters, paramedics and other emergency services workers were going to be excluded, he (Hudak) would have said so,” he said.

But former PC labour critic MPP Monte McNaughton said the OPFFA’s contentions are “just not true” — that their plan is to protect the frontlines. He reiterated that they intend to achieve their job reduction target largely through attrition, by contracting out some services and by getting rid of government agencies like the LHINs and Drive Clean.

Nevertheless, he said he’s not at all surprised with the letter given that firefighters have had it “pretty good” under the Liberals over the last 11 years. He cites examples such as the 239 out of 370 firefighters in London making more than $100,000 last year. In Stratford, an arbitrator awarded the firefighters a 20% pay hike and in Windsor they got a 16% pay increase — both unaffordable for the respective municipalities.

As the Association of Municipalities of Ontario recently pointed out, generous arbitration awards have continued unchecked because the Liberal government has repeatedly failed to change the legislation so that arbitrators are forced to take a municipality’s ability to pay into consideration — instead of just replicating deals made with other cities.

“We’re going to start saying no to our public sector workers,” McNaughton said. “The choice is clear ... taxpayers want a government who is going to stand up for them.”

McKinnon claimed the NDP and Liberals both have their “backs” but argued that this election they’re not telling members who to vote for specifically. When I suggested that they made it pretty darn clear the PCs are the devil incarnate, he agreed.

Retiring Canadian Federation of Independent Business chairman Catherine Swift — who has started a new volunteer group called Working Canadians — said the unions like to use the Tea Party a lot because they know that sends Canadians “off the deep end.”

“The unions are scared ... that’s what this is all about,” she said. “If they keep voting in governments that keep giving them all they want, we’re going to go broke ... including them.”